Rare Engraved Prints of Skulls of an Eskimo Dog and The Icelandic SheepDog, 1842
$950 (£720, €850)
Period original, not a reproduction.
Shipped from the Netherlands, flat, insured and tracked, worldwide. Returns accepted within 14 days.
- Date
- 1842
- Size
- 12.6 × 21.3 in (32 × 54 cm)
- Condition
- Good. Condition report: Crisp impression with sharp detail. Wide margins with minor foxing and light toning, mainly at the sheet edges, not affecting the illustrations. Plate mark visible.
- Period
- Early 19th century
- Section
- Mammals
- Reference
- f_26429972
Skulls of an Eskimo dog and an Icelandic dog, an original lithograph from Paul Gaimard's Voyage en Islande et au Groenland, published in Paris in 1842. The plate is titled "Crâne de chien des Esquimaux" and "Crâne de chien d'Islande," and was drawn by Louis Bévalet and lithographed by J. Bernard. It is printed in black and gray tones without color.
Five skulls are arranged on the sheet. Across the upper row, three skulls seen from above and from below show the cranial vault, the broad zygomatic arches and the palate with its teeth. Along the lower row are two skulls in profile, the Greenland sled dog at the left and the smaller Icelandic dog at the right, each with its jaw open to show the full set of canines and cheek teeth. The shading is fine and exact, treating the bones as anatomical specimens, and the numbered views are keyed to the plate lettering.
The plate belongs to the osteological series of Gaimard's voyage, which aimed to record the animals and people of Iceland and Greenland. It compares the Greenland sled dog with the smaller Icelandic sheepdog, both important working animals in northern communities.
